Karnataka

At average 28.5 yrs, Bengaluru has youngest entrepreneurs in world

Bengaluru: The city has the youngest startup ecosystem in the world, with the average founder's age at 28.5 years, according to a survey of the top 20 global startup ecosystems. In Silicon Valley, the world's largest startup hub, the average age is eight years older than in Bengaluru at 36.2 years.

Kuala Lumpur comes closest to Bengaluru, at 30.5 years, followed by Sao Paulo, 31.7 years, and Berlin, 31.8%. Sydney has the highest average age among startup founders, at 40.3 years, according to The Startup Ecosystem report by San Francisco-based Compass, a research firm that provides global benchmarking tools.

India has one of the youngest populations in the world, which is now reflecting in entrepreneurship. Mohan Kumar, executive director at venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners India, said it was also a reflection of the startups emerging these days being based on new business models like on-demand, internet and social.

"This industry itself is only five years old and a person with 15 or more years of experience or knowledge will not add value. Youngsters will understand them better. Venture capitalists also prefer younger entrepreneurs, those who are around 30 years of age," he said.

Compass also finds that Bengaluru moved up four positions to rank 15 in 2015 among the top 20 startup ecosystems, advancing from rank 19 in the 2012 ranking. It was amongst those who made the biggest leaps. Others who made similar leaps were New York, Austin, Singapore, Berlin and Chicago. Silicon Valley retains the top spot in the survey that looks at performance, funding, market reach, talent, and startup experience.

There were only three cities - Bengaluru, Singapore, and Sydney - from Asia Pacific in the top 20. Many of the cities in the top 20 were US ones. New Delhi was not in the top 20, but was among the runners up, together with Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and Jakarta in Asia Pacific.

Bengaluru saw the most growth in seed fund rounds over the last three years, with an annual average growth of 53%. It was followed by Sydney (33%) and Austin (30%). According to the report, which was compiled with the help of global startup database CrunchBase, Bengaluru has done well in the funding parameter with a rank of 6, just below Chicago.

All material, information, data, images or content on this website is subject to copyright or other applicable intellectual property laws and no part of it can be reproduced in any form (including paper or electronic form) without prior written consent and approval from IBEF. Infringements are subject to prosecution under the applicable laws. For consent related queries and conditions, please write to info.brandindia@ibef.org